3 Scandals That Nearly Broke Businesses

In this age of sharing, viral media, and social networks, you do have to be careful about a potential scandal. A scandal could spread like wildfire and potentially take down your company. A scandal could be anything. It could be an environmental disaster, a legal liability, a disgraced owned or a security failure. Any issue like this could basically put you in a position where customers aren’t sure whether they want to trust your company. That’s a dangerous situation because if you’re not careful, they won’t go back to your business at all. Instead, they will move onto the competition, the companies that haven’t let them down. Here are a few of the biggest examples that have happened in the past and the impact that a similar situation could have on the future of your business.

The Weinstein Company

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past four months, you have most likely heard of the Harvey Weinstein scandal. The impact ignited a movement that has spread through Hollywood and is reshaping harassment laws as we speak. With several criminal investigations, there was no way that a company with Weinstein’s name would stand and it isn’t. The business is broken with other studios dipping in to buy and salvage films that the studio could no longer release. That said, the company isn’t going to come crashing down completely. In fact, there are a number of buyers looking to purchase the business and salvage what’s left of it.

The aim of these potential buyers is to turn the company around after changing the name, triggering a hard reboot. It will be interesting to see if anyone can pull it back from the brink. After all, this was once a studio known for producing oscar winning films and was the home to many famed directors including Quentin Tarantino.

BP

Deepwater Horizon isn’t just the name of an oil rig that ended in tragedy. It’s also a major motion picture that tells the tale of that tragedy. It’s a name that is now synonymous with a scandal that, while not big enough to take down the oil conglomerate certainly had an impact on stock prices for a period. As well as this, BP had to pay 7 billion to victims involved in the incident and a few other fines for environmental damage. These days, it’s becoming increasingly important for businesses to make sure that they are not involved in scandals like this. That’s why if you are using hazardous materials like oil near water you need oil stop valves to make sure that it doesn’t spill.

Equifax

Finally, we need to think about Equifax, a credit check company that holds the information of millions of Americans. The company was hacked last year, leaving a devastating impact and exposing the majority of their customers to identity theft. However, the real issue came when it was revealed that the company was completely aware of the problem for six months before they alerted anyone.

We hope this helps you see how damaging a scandal like this can be and why you need to take care to avoid a situation like this in your company.